Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300153
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
That's the number to call to reach police, fire or emergency medical services. The additional cost to telephone customers will amount to 42 cents a month.
A ceremony marking the service is planned Monday at 10 a.m., with a call from Pulaski County officials at the Sheriff's Office central dispatch to Pulaski town officials at the Police Department's Municipal Building dispatch center.
Through selective routing by C&P Telephone Co., Pulaski residents dialing 911 will have their calls directed to Police Department dispatchers. County residents, including those in Dublin, will have calls routed to the dispatch center in the Sheriff's Office.
In Pulaski, a computer system will display the street name and number of the caller. Pulaski County's system will show the current address on record with the telephone company.
The county system also will allow additional data on special emergency-response needs. The county's volunteer fire and rescue crews will be reviewing address information to see that new data is added as it becomes available.
The county system also allows cutover to 911 service even before the naming and numbering of each road and property in the county is finished.
Installing road signs is underway now. About half the county roads have signs so far. Most of the remaining signs will be put up this summer.
Road signs are a vital part of the 911 system, so any evidnece of vandalism should be reported promptly so the signs can be replaced. New addresses will be phased in over a period of years to minimize public inconvenience.
When a 911 call is received, the telephone number and address of the caller are displayed on a video screen. Then, even if the call is interrupted, the dispatcher has the information on where the call originated.
County Administrator Joseph N. Morgan and Pulaski Town Manager Don E. Holycross have emphasized that since 911 is an emergency telephone system it should be used for nothing else.
Its purpose is to report such things as crimes in progress, fires, heart attacks, serious injuries or other situations requiring an immediate response by police, fire or rescue people. Use of the number for non-emergencies could block an actual emergency call.
Pulaski town residents can call the Police Department on non-emergency matters at 980-1220 and the Fire Department at 980-3772.
The old town fire department number, 980-3700, also will become a regular number. The emergency number at the Sheriff's Office, 980-7802, will become another business line to that office.
by CNB